No business operates without having backups. The average user shouldn’t either. Data and information should never be just only in one place. It doesn’t matter if it is corporate data or pictures of the family. Always backup your data. However, there are different ways and methods of backing it up and it’s important to know the differences.
What is a Cloud Backup?
A cloud backup is simply copying files over the internet and saving them in a cloud storage. This does not mean your data is lost in cyberspace. Rather, the company you sign up with has servers that can be accessed over the internet that store your data. Without cloud storage, you would need to transfer your files to a wide variety of physical storage mediums such as CDs, DVDs, flash drives, external drives, and even tapes. Physical storage mediums require you to be aware of space issues and to manage a physical location to store the data. With cloud storage, you can store as much as you want and you don’t need to worry about where the data is.
Why You Need a Cloud Backup
There are too many problems that occur with storage mediums that are not cloud related. For example, physical storage mediums have space issues. If you are backing up a 10GB file to CDs that store up to 1GB each, you would have to go through roughly ten CDs before you have a complete backup. This is each time you conduct a backup. So, if you backup once a day, you will need 70 CDs for each week.
Flash drives have their drawbacks too. They are not really designed for long term storage. While they are portable, they can be easily lost.
Corporations, small to medium businesses, and even individuals need a cloud backup. The majority reason is that it is the best solution when trying to balance a budget, size availability, and long term solutions. It is incredibly easy to use once the application is setup.
Another reason to prefer a cloud backup is security. With physical storage mediums, you would have to worry about who would be able to access the physical medium or device. However, if the backup is in the cloud, this no longer is an issue. Security would be the responsibility of the company providing cloud storage. Most accounts are password protected as well. If you were to backup data to your thumb drive, it wouldn’t have a password protected area unless you put that into the individual document.
Backing up your data can be as simple as copying your drives over to flash drive and storing it. Although, there are pros and cons to this type of backup, it can be as simple as that. Large corporations can’t rely on this method, though. They need a solution that can handle much larger amounts of data. There are two main types of backing up for companies and even individuals: a pure cloud backup and a hybrid.
A Pure Cloud Backup
In a pure cloud backup, the company moves all files into the cloud’s storage. An application is stored on the desktop which allows the user to copy files into it and up in the cloud. A great example of this is Google Drive. You install a client on your desktop. After that, it appears as a drive on your computer that you can just move files to. Dropbox can be considered another example of this.
There are plenty of good points about using a backup such as this. For one, it’s very lightweight with little to overhead. The application clients that are installed on the desktop do not take up much space and don’t slow down the system. Another point is price. Pricing is relatively low for average amounts of data storage. Both Google Cloud and Dropbox both offer free services.
The downside is that very large corporation can use something like the due the amount of internet traffic from data backups would take up the entire bandwidth. While the client itself doesn’t take up space, the time for large file transfers would take more time.
Hybrid Cloud Backup
Hybrid cloud backup seek to correct the drawback of a traditional cloud backup which is bottlenecking. In simpler terms, if you were backing up large amounts of data to the cloud your network connection would limit the amount of data you could push to the cloud at a single time. This would slow your network. In a business setting, this has the possibility of disrupting operations.
Hybrid clouds work by having a staging area of for the recent backups. The staging area is actually on the network. Older backups rest in the cloud. This makes recovery to the most recent backup quick while still providing access to older backups. This onsite setup is called a NAS or Network Attached Storage.
The major benefit to this is that it cuts down on bottlenecking ad helps balance the load on bandwidth when it comes to backing up data. The most recent backup is closer to you which is faster. The older the backup up the further the data is from you.
The drawback to this can be price. This solution if or large companies and corporation. Another drawback is that it means there needs to be a physical device onsite. Adding to this, there needs to be some setup when implementing. This also means that the companies may need to have an IT trained employee there to assist.
An example of this would be the CudaDrive and Barracuda storage. Barracuda Cloud is a load balancer that manages the resources that are being taken up. It can shift activity as needed. The CudaDrive creates a virtual disk on the computer that acts like temporary storage area before it is shifted to the cloud.
Deciding Which is Best
Small businesses and individuals would not need the hybrid cloud backup solution. Individual clients would not want to install a separate device in their home. Adding to that, they don’t have the amount of data to backup. The same can be said for small businesses. Medium businesses would have to assess how much data they would need to backup and if have space for a separate device. Large corporations would need the Hybrid in order to take the load off the network.